China's Leaders Push Urbanization as Engine for Growth

Communist to Exercise 'Strict Control' Over Growth of Largest Cities

BEIJING—China's leaders reaffirmed their intention to turn urbanization into a powerful engine to drive growth and remake the economy, saying they would encourage rural residents to move to smaller cities, rather than Beijing, Shanghai and other megacities.

Over the past month, party leaders have rolled out their plans to revamp the Chinese economy and made few mentions of urbanization, though it had been seen as a priority of China's...